Dark Realm Records in Los Angeles has managed to stay open for years and years and they carry honest and no bullshit metal exclusively. The shop has a great selection of cd's, vinyls, shirts, videos, even patches, ammo belts etc. Have no idea how the guys in Sadistic Intent have been able to keep it open!!! I really suggest you visit the shop if you can, and talk with them about the business and how they're survived all this time.

If you want to be more successful an online mail order is a mandatory idea in my opinion._________________"Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude." - Schopenhauer

there was recently an all-metal store in ny (metal kingdom) but i think it shut down now.... there used to be 2 decent shops in my area, with decent metal selection that were around for years, now closed... even just the typical rock store can't make it.. i hate to give a bleak view.... i look around my area, and notice tons of metal fans in the woodwork... i keep thinking its an opportunity to open the only record store in the area... but theres at least 9 or 10 metal fans at my job alone, and all of them have a blank stare when i say i buy records or cd's... they all download

they do go to shows though, so maybe that person who opened his house into a venue with metal store, that seems like a great idea.... and the internet/mailorder would be essential also... i noticed Vintage Vinyl no longer sells their oop metal lp's anymore, they save em for ebay

I hate to be a real bummer, but I think success is unlikely. Here's why:

I am a volunteer at our local punk/metal (more punk than metal) record store here in Minneapolis. Keep in mind that this is an all-VOLUNTEER run and owned (no profit) record store that has been around for over 10 years. In other words, all revenue earned goes to pay the rent, bills, and buy more records and CDs. There is only one paid employee, the accountant, and she works VERY part-time.

Every year sales drop more and more and it is becoming increasingly possible that the store will have to close someday. The reality is that music downloads are killing business more and more. Vinyl is almost unprofitable when you factor in high manufacturing costs, which lead to high wholesale and retail prices. We mark up 50% from wholesale costs, so a $10 wholesale record sells for $15. $5 of revenue on a record, then subtract shipping costs, that record's share of the rent and bills, any employee wages, the share of that money that needs to go to buying more music (to expand inventory, etc.), and you have about 0 profit to feed yourself.

CDs are much more profitable because manufacturing costs are so much lower and retail prices are not much lower than vinyl, BUT fewer and fewer people are buying CDs. The newspaper said yesterday that half of ALL teenagers did not buy a single CD in 2007.

That said, if you give it a shot, I wish you all the best. The world could use more good METAL record stores.

This pretty much says it all. CDs are a dying format. Nobody wants to pay for something that they can get for free off the internet.

The only three options are this:

1.) Buy wholesale and sell cheap. $15, even $10 CDs are a thing of the past. People will be far more inclined to pay $5 for a CD anyway.

2.) (for labels/bands) Make limited / special format releases only. Hand number them. String barb wire around them and smother them with poo. This will spur the heavy-metal hunter mentality in people and get them to buy your CDs. Mass produced media isn't a realistic option for small and lesser known labels anymore. You'd be lucky to sell 50 copies of your album before it's uploaded to the internet.

3.) Give up on the idea of selling CDs and start selling drugs instead. There's tons of money in selling drugs because there's tons of people that do drugs. It's just that simple, you know? _________________

lurking fear wrote:

CrucifixionWounds wrote:

Bolt Thrower didn't hold up well at all for me... no desire at all to ever listen to this band again.

Dark Realm Records in Los Angeles has managed to stay open for years and years and they carry honest and no bullshit metal exclusively. The shop has a great selection of cd's, vinyls, shirts, videos, even patches, ammo belts etc. Have no idea how the guys in Sadistic Intent have been able to keep it open!!! I really suggest you visit the shop if you can, and talk with them about the business and how they're survived all this time.

I too have always thought about how they managed to stay open as an independant shop for ...what, 14+ years now? Yeah, they definitely have their ups and downs, just like any business.
But in the past years, as Rick would say, it's been downhill with not much income coming in due to alot of online mailorders/distros, ebay, mp3/itunes digital download stuff. This is not even mentioning Amoeba's.

With the demise of Tower Records [which was located about a mile away from their location], their sales havn't risen TOO much, oddly enough.

Another reason, I think, they survived this long is that they are honest and down to earth people who ARE fans and support REAL Metal themselves. Most record shops that i've been to the employees are not much fans of the older Metal bands/styles,etc. and instead cater to the newer generation.
Anyone that lived in the LA area during the mid/late 80's that remember Wild Rags Records will tell you that Richard was rude/pushy and basically a dick to all the customers that went in.

You can actually talk to them about any music/show/band/album,etc. They are very cool with the customers and when one receives that treatment, you definitely will return.
10 years later I still do.

Maybe it's a bit uncalled for, but perhaps another [small] reason Dark Realm has survived is due to the 'band' running the shop.

Despite it all, I think an online mail order/distro/label as NWN, Iron Pegasus, HHB, etc. will be much succesful then opening a shop in these hard times.
-and from the looks of the posts, it seems to be worldwide and not just North America.

Amoeba is getting a lot better with stocking UG CD's and LP's. They even sell their shit on eBay occasionally.

Lucikily for me, a 5 minute drive to the local major business street (a huge strip for miles of just 100% retail/business) has this new chain store called Rasputin's (old Tower records store sucked ass) that has a huge section of metal CD's and LP's. Pretty obscure shit. Even a lot of NWN! stuff. I think most of the metal promoters here work there... which is probably a plus. Also, metalcore is kept to a low, which I love, but thought was a bizarre financial move.

Itīs really odd to read about metal stores in the USA when here in germany (probably biggest # of metalheads per square mile worldwide ) there is just about nothing like this. I think even Nuclear Blast donīt run their store anymore....

Yeah, another one I was going to mention.
Somewhat on the same level as Dark Realm, only difference was B.M had more variety as classical,punk,jazz I think, and so on.
Dark Realm is strictly Metal, yet ALOT smaller then B.M was._________________Speeding Through Hell!
Metal Storm 'zine
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